The invention relates to the utilization of an automatic teller machine (ATM) for dispensing of telephone (phone) cards and to phone cards for dispensing from an ATM.
Widely used in Europe since 1972, the prepaid telephone (phone) card is a debit card which has come into its own in the United States as a means to make long distance calls.
A phone card is normally supplied as a wallet-sized card. The user calls a long distance telephone number, dials a personal identification number (PIN) contained on the card, checks the account balance, replenishes it via credit card if it is low, and then completes the call to any select location in a pre-agreed territory. Prepaid amounts range from $10-$50.00 per card.
The main attraction of the phone card is the savings in money on quick calls, along with security against telephone fraud because of the limited amount of money involved. Cost of the calls ranges from $0.20-0.60 a minute. On calls as little as 3-5 minutes, a telephone card is considered to be less expensive than telephone company calling cards, which have an initial surcharge.
In most countries, prepaid phone cards can be purchased at postal offices, newsstands or vending machines normally in sealed containers such as envelopes which secure the PIN until the container is opened.
Automatic teller machines are in wide use as a secured source to dispense money and, most recently, postage stamps. It would be highly desirable to adapt the automatic teller machine to telephone card dispensing. This is the subject of the instant invention.
The method for providing telephone time using automatic teller machines comprises ordering a predetermined amount of telephone time from a provider of telephone service; proportioning the amount of purchased time into a designated number of predetermined periods of time to define, defining thereby a group of automatic teller machine dispensable sheetlets; printing sheetlets with randomly generated personal identification numbers; packaging a group of sheetlets and providing the package group of sheetlets and recorded personal identification numbers of the sheetlets to the installer of phone cards in automatic teller machines. The groups of sheetlets are installed in an automatic teller machine and telephone service is provided with personal identification numbers on a compact disk. The sheetlets are activated individually or as a batch.
Sheetlets forming the group are dispensed from an automatic teller machine for use on command of a user of the automatic teller machine, for use until consumption of a purchased amount of telephone time. Sheetlets, which are dispensed from the ATM machine, are currency sized and provide a different coefficient of friction on each surface thereof, and the coefficient friction differential enables dispensing of individual sheetlets of the group by caliper or opacity. Sheetlets have a lay flat quality. The sheetlets contain information concerning use of the telephone service as well as a personal identification number (PIN) individualized to the sheetlet. Preferably, the PIN is occluded until exposed at the time of use and may be contained on a segment of the sheetlet which is a separable from the bulk of the sheetlet for transfer to another surface. In a preferred construction, the sheetlet is manufactured as a laminate of the first self-supporting surface, a layer of removable pressure- sensitive, and a release zone or layer on a second self-supporting layer. The first face layer is die cut to the release zone or layer to allow removal of a portion of the first self-supporting layer. The removable portion contains the PIN and allows it to be transferred to another substrate such as a credit card. In the alternative, it may remain with the phone card.